My stolen rig must have been embedded with a tracking device. Figures. The ship passes right on by, flying low above the forest and making a b-line for the crash site of the rig. There is no doubt in my mind that they will be heading our way.
We weren’t careful about covering our trails either. Why would we be? I never thought they would be coming for us. It will be easy for them to pick it up when I think more about it. I left my bag at the beach. That was stupid. We killed that snake to eat and it bled out all over the place. I know the sand will cover it over but there will still be a signature for them to track.
The thoughts are racing through my mind but I still haven’t moved from the streaming water atop this rocky outcrop. Kolt remains irritatingly poised as usual. But he doesn’t even know it’s a problem. It dawns on me that I’ve told him nothing.
The Morris-Cooper Mining Company. The circular logo with a pick axe protruding from the centre makes me shiver. I think that the company had just been founded by two probably pretty nice guys some hundred or so years ago when the exploitation of space bound resources first began back on Earth.
Who would have known that it would have evolved into the heartless, evil, un-trustworthy company they became? I hope the two guys who formed it are rolling constantly in their graves knowing what their namesake became.
This changes things though. This is no longer a desperate mission of survival anymore for us. Well, just me I guess, since Kolt claims not to be bothered about rescue. That’s no longer necessary though. This just became a race to escape and find a way off the planet. This isn’t a rescue anymore. This is an evasion.
I slowly steady my breath. Kolt is peering into the distance, back the way we came, and in the direction of the landing craft. He hasn’t said anything even though he must have figured it out by the look of horror I just can’t hide. Something occurs to me. I haven’t even told him who I am or that I’m here because I’m a wanted criminal. I stole. I killed. And I guarantee they’re here for my ass.
‘It would seem you no longer require my help to be rescued?’ He stands aloof and cross armed. He briefly glances down to me. He must think these guys are my friends who have come to save me.
‘Oh that is so far from true I don’t know where to start.’ I say through panting breaths. I lift my soaked body from the ground. My legs have turned to jelly but I can stand and shake it off. He looks confused. That’s a lie. He looks the same. But he doesn’t reply to me right away so I can only guess that I have him stumped.
‘I don’t understand.’ He states. It take a while to think about how to explain it to him and look around the place. The sun caresses the green tops of the jungle canopy. The light dances across the colorful fruit bearing trees and creates a beautiful and color rich spectacle. It’s warmer up at the top of the rock face but I don’t mind.
The sun soothingly laps me dry after the hard climb and all I can smell is the dull, pungent scent of my own sweat. The rocky outcrop extends beyond the obvious. It forms part of a cracked and fractured ridge that weaves through the trees and cuts deep into the jungle, luckily, in the direction that we need to go in.
We can stay atop the jungle floor for a while and that would mean we are plenty out of the way of some of the bigger creatures. From this vantage point I can see far into the horizon, to the base of a mountain and some foothills before that. I follow the jagged edge of that mountain with my strained eyes up into the sky, where the peak disappears into a haze of high top clouds.
That must have been where we were heading. Kolt mentioned that he crashed his ship atop a mountainous peak. And I thought climbing this wall had been hard… I allowed myself a brief moment to feel afraid of what was to come but had to snap out of it. I don’t care how hard the walk or the climb will be, or even how many different things try to eat me on the way. I don’t want to go back. I can’t go back. I won’t let them take me.
‘Those would be my former employers.’ I begin my story, hands on hips, and staring blankly across the open jungle floor and into the hazy mountain face beyond. I emphasize the word “former” and hope that he clicks on.
He might have but still remains silent, arms folded, and peering in the opposite direction. I can make out some bobbing, reptile like heads weaving and forcing their way though the dense foliage below. They must be some of the bigger creatures. They have enormous teeth and snarl incessantly. I have to talk over them but I continue my story.
‘I probably got fired when I stole the rig from them.’ I decide to just drop the bombshell. My chest is starting to hurt and my muscles are still heaving. Kolt instantly spins around on the spot and glares at me through those bloodshot and piercing eyes.
I swear he’s laughing so low that I can’t hear it through the muffler of his mask. Maybe I’m just making it up. Still no reply from him though.
‘So I think its more a case of them coming here to, at best, drag me back to face the consequences, or at worst, just kill me.’ I think he is surprised to hear that. But it’s so damn hard to tell with him. ‘And I wouldn’t put that latter option at all past them.’
My voice grumbles after the effort of climbing and I meet his stare and hold it for the first time in our odd friendship. This time I hear him laugh. Openly, extravagantly and audibly. I can’t force my smile away. I might have actually broken through to him.
‘What’s so funny?’ I ask him, desperate to maintain the conversation. It might just be the longest one that we have had.
‘I didn’t think you had it in you, Sam.’ He says between genuinely disturbing laughs, each burst broken up by a very drawn out inhale through the grumbling mask. I want to be offended but literally can’t be bothered. I search my mind for a reply. I hate myself because nothing comes to mind witty enough to deter him.
‘Go to Hell mate.’ Is all I can manage. I turn my attention back to the rock face below. My vision is hazy as sweat permeates over my eye lids from across my brow. I can’t see the ground anymore. I can make out, however, that nothing is moving down there so I assume that the snapping dinosaurs must have gone.
He eventually stops laughing and somewhat surprisingly decides to give me the choice of what to do.
‘How should we proceed?’ He asks and composes himself instantly, like he just flicked an internal switch, one that returns him completely to normal and utterly, frustratingly, unreadable. I start to walk across the rocky surface of the elevated ridge we find ourselves on top of.
‘Any chance we can fly your ship out of here?’ I take a stab at a potential solution. ‘What kind is it anyway, you never told me?’ I bombard him with questions as my mind races through the possibilities. I lead him over the jagged rocks at my pace. I’m the one anxious to get going this time. I know what will be in store for me if I get caught by whatever security forces they have sent after me.
They are a law unto themselves. They have their own armed security, or at least they call it security, they may as well be enforcers or military police or something. I bet it’s those they’ve sent after me. I watch my feet, not Kolt, since the surface of the ridge is unpredictable and any fall to either side of the narrow edges would be a death sentence.
‘No.’ Is all he says. I finally lose my temper with him. I’m so sick of his nonchalant sort of attitude and his vagueness every time I need information out of him.
‘Is that all you have?’ I raise my voice but still don’t turn. I know I’m the beta male in this relationship. This guy could snap me clean in half if he tried. I want to vent my frustration but not lose him as a friend. I’ll never make it on my own out here. I hear him sigh though his breather. I briefly glance up and he is walking much closer behind me than I though he was. That makes me flinch but I hold my ground.
‘My ship, is not my ship, I was only a soldier on board it. Maintenance and repair.’ He says. He sounds distant again. Like he was trying to pull out a dated memory from right at the back of his mind. At
least that explains his odd and garish attire.
‘Then you can fix the damn thing?’ I keep on my course of anger and frustration. It might work. This is the most information I have been able to get out of him in two days.
‘It is “Kraken” Class.’ He says like a spark has gone off in his mind. But I know what that means. My heart flutters with childish and naïve excitement.
The Kraken Class, named after a mythical sea creature, was an enormous breed of interstellar vessel. Among the very first of them too. First breed of hyper drive engine. Balls to the wall space exploration with no hope of back up when it all went wrong!
They were used for conflict though. I’d never given any thought as to why Kolt was here. On this desolate and uncivilized world. But I guess he must have crashed during a fight.
But to the point at hand. There are two glaring problems with what he said. Problems that protrude from behind my mask of excitement. The Kraken’s are old. Very, very old. Museum old. So what the hell was he doing with one? And second. There was no way we could fly a Kraken on a crew strength of two. My overactive mind lurches into action and I start digging around my imagination for a solution to the questions.
We stumble a few more yards, I say we stumble, of course I mean I stumble. Kolt takes it in stride as always.
‘Why did you bring a Kraken here?’ I decide to take a saw to the branch he is sat on. I can already predict his answer. And I’m poised and ready for the frustration of his reply.
‘I don’t remember.’ He says with no hesitation, but with a hint of frustration of his own, and proves me right. I push further.
‘The Kraken is a warship, Kolt, I didn’t even know they made any more after the Colony Wars.’ I stop, realize I’m screaming at him, and turn to look right at him. The Colony Wars ended a very long time ago ‘What the Hell did you come here for?’ I calm myself and hold his vacant stare. He shakes his head. He stays calm but I can sense somehow a deep and burning anger coming from inside of him. He stares into the distance over my shoulder and continues.
‘We maintain our course. We locate and board my ship and use the communication modules to call for help as planned.’ He hammers out a rehash of my own plan.
‘Call who?’ I ask, more calmed, and turn my attention back to the ridge we are trying to traverse across.
‘The Russian Council of Federal Governments.’ He sounds pleased and proud with himself for figuring out how to get off the planet. But more for the effort he has gone to dig out a what must have been a long lost memory.
But my heart virtually stops. I try so hard not to let my surprise and shock show. I feel a wave of bubbling fear boil over me like a freezing wave of icy water. I keep going with our path and hold onto the rocks beneath my feet using my clammy hands with as much power as I can manage.
I know my pace has slowed but I can’t help it. I try to control my breathing and not let my fear show. The Russian Federation doesn’t exist. It hasn’t for over a hundred years.